Russian minister visits Cuba as Trump ramps up pressure on Havana

SANTA CLARA

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RUSSIA'S interior minister met with top leaders of ally Cuba in Havana this week, a show of solidarity after US President Donald Trump warned that the island's longtime communist government "is ready to fall".

Trump this month told Havana to "make a deal," the nature of which he did not divulge, or pay a price similar to Venezuela, whose leader Nicolas Maduro was ousted by US forces in a January 3 bombing raid that killed dozens of people.

Venezuela was a key ally of Cuba and a critical supplier of oil and money, which Trump has vowed to cut off.

"We in Russia regard this as an act of unprovoked armed aggression against Venezuela," Russia's Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev told Russian state TV Rossiya-1 of the US actions after landing in Cuba.

"This act cannot be justified in any way and once again proves the need to increase vigilance and consolidate all efforts to counter external factors," he added.